The Sceptred Isle

12/02/2025

in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was executed at the Tower of London. She was just a teenager.

Lady Jane was the great-niece of Henry VIII, and fourth in line to the throne, directly after Henry's own children. Following his death, the throne passed to his son, Edward VI, who removed his own sisters from the line of succession in favor of Jane--a decision of questionable legality. Edward died soon after at the age of 15 and Jane was proclaimed queen.

Though Jane's claim was initially supported by the Privy Council, they soon reversed their decision, supporting instead Edward's eldest sister, Mary. Jane was never crowned; instead, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London on charges of Treason. She was executed several months later.

This dramatic painting of her last moments as imagined by Paul Delaroche in 1833 can be viewed at the National Gallery in London, a free museum in Trafalgar Square.

12/02/2025

Gearrannan Blackhouse Village on the Isle of Lewis, a truly spectacular place to visit.

03/02/2025

03/02/2025

This chart shows the average weekly diet of one working class family from Oxfordshire in England, in 1912. It was included in the book “How the Labourer Lives: A Study of the Rural Labour Problem” by B. Seebohm Rowntree and May Kendall, published in 1917.

The family featured are the Leigh family, with the father, Robert, his pregnant wife, their three sons (aged 5, 3, and 15 months) and their 8-year-old daughter.

The family’s weekly income was 13 shillings, with the weekly rent on their cottage being 1 shilling and thruppence. The family’s total average weekly expenditure was just over 13 shillings.

The book talks about how the family was experiencing tough circumstances, as the introduction of new machinery meant Robert was getting less shifts at his job as a general labourer.

The family was deep in debt, particularly after Robert broke one of his ribs and was laid up for four weeks, which led to them having to seek help from their parish. The total debt they had at the time they were interviewed was £10 (approx £710/$870 today), or 15x their weekly income.

Mrs Leigh told the authors, “Oh, we have to go where anyone will give us a bit of credit. They won't let it run here in the village — I go miles sometimes. And when they worry, we have to pay a bit off and go short. It isn't as if we were extravagant. I've had no new clothes since I've been married. One of the children is off school to-day for want of a pair of shoes.”

“I sleep all right till about twelve,” she said, “and then I wake and begin worrying about what I owe, and how to get things. Last night I lay and cried for a couple of hours.”

The researchers of the study concluded that the family’s diet was lacking 39% of the necessary proteins, and 21% of energy value.

The Tudor Intruders (and more)

Source: “How the Labourer Lives: A Study of the Rural Labour Problem”, Rowntree & Kendall, pp. 59-63, pub. 1917.

03/02/2025

LGBTQ+ history has often been hidden from view, but many individuals throughout history have lived radical private lives outside the accepted sexual norms of the time.

10/10/2024

20/09/2024

On this day in 1258, Salisbury Cathedral was consecrated. At 404 ft., the spire of Salisbury Cathedral is the tallest in England, and can be seen from all around the city and miles beyond. It acquired this distinction in 1549, when the spire of Lincoln Cathedral collapsed. Similar collapses had struck many cathedral spires in the medieval period, and Salisbury’s would almost certainly have eventually suffered the same fate if it wasn’t for the involvement of famed architect Christopher Wren. In 1668, Wren added timber beams to the supporting piers of the spire and covered the supports with a false ceiling. Further supports were added in the Victorian era, and ongoing monitoring continues today.

19/09/2024

🥴 Big oof.

18/09/2024

👀

17/09/2024

It's long past rose season in England, but I hope you'll forgive one last photo for the year of the blooms at one of my favorite gardens--. English gardens truly are unmatched, and photos like these keep them alive for me even in the dead of winter.

13/09/2024

On this day in 1940, Buckingham Palace was struck by a German bomb during the second of three air raids that day. One worker was killed and three others injured, but despite being struck in sixteen different occasions during the Blitz, there were no mass casualties and physical damage to the Palace was limited.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were at the palace during the September 13th bombing, but were ushered to safety and escaped without incident. Previously much of the bombing had taken place in the East End, as this is where key industrial and dockland area were located, but Buckingham Palace was quickly considered to be a desirable symbolic target. After the Sept 13th bombing, Queen Elizabeth famously remarked, "I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face".

12/09/2024

I personally think London is the greatest city in the world, but I still give this piece of advice to all first-time visitors to England: get out of London! From the quaint Cotswold villages, the stunning beaches of Cornwall, the endless gardens of Kent, the rolling hills of the Peak District, the marshes of Norfolk, the farmland and fishing villages of Yorkshire.....99% of the best parts of England are outside the capital.

10/09/2024

York Minster // Yorkshire

What's a "minster" anyway, and how is it different from a cathedral? I see this question asked quite a bit in U.K. travel groups! Cathedrals are churches serving as the seat of the bishop of a diocese; though many people believe that cathedral status is granted due to architectural grandeur, this isn't a requirement, but rather a result of the church's status in the diocesan hierarchy. Historically, a minster designated a monastic connection, but today it's an honorific title given to specific churches of significant size and importance. There are 31 such minsters in the Church of England, with minster status being granted as recently as 2022. Personally, I think what tends to confuse people is the assumption that the terms are mutually exclusive, but they aren't--York Minster is both a cathedral and a minster.

06/09/2024

The unicorn has been associated with Scotland since the 12th century when William I first used it on an early form of the coat of arms; it was officially adopted as the country’s national animal in the late 1300s. According to folklore dating back thousands of years, the unicorn was the natural enemy of the lion, symbol of England--with the former creature ruling by peace and the latter by force. It says quite a bit about how Scottish monarchs felt about their neighbors to the south! It wasn’t just a dig at the English, however: unicorns were associated with purity, innocence,pride, strength, masculinity, and power. Following his succession of Elizabeth I in England, James VI/I replaced one unicorn on the Scottish royal coat of arms with a lion; Scotland and England--two mortal enemies now united under a single monarch.

05/09/2024

Listen, American to American--it is *not* the same.

04/09/2024

Melford Hall is an Elizabethan Manor house nestled near the small town of Long Melford, in Suffolk. Originally owned by the abbots of nearby Bury St. Edmunds, it passed into private hands during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Eventually sold to Sir Harry Parker, 6th Baronet in 1786, it has remained the home of the Parker family ever since (though the National Trust purchased the property in 1960). A notable connection is that of Parker cousin Beatrix Potter, who frequently spent time here beginning in the late 1800s, leaving behind an original watercolor and stuffed Jemima Puddle-Duck, among other various treasures.

03/09/2024

JUST LET ME BE FREE.